Overrated
by 1701dragonflies
Summary: Her and Hook as True Love? Emma was going to throw Henry's book in the harbour as soon as she got the chance.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Her and Hook as True Love? Emma was going to throw Henry's book in the harbour as soon as she got the chance.

Author's Note: this is my first story for this fandom. Picks up more or less after the events of 2.11. Probably rather depressingly AU. There's so much talk on this show about True Love that I'm surprised I haven't seen more fics about it for this pairing, unless I'm looking for it in all the wrong places. Anyway.

Inspired by The Editors' 'The Weight'

Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time belongs to ABC and its respective owners. I just wrote this for fun with no copyright infringement intended.

Once upon a time, there was a young woman, fair of face and brave of heart, daughter of true love, a prince and a princess destined to unite a kingdom. An orphan, a mother, a saviour

Once upon a time, there was a young man, a gentleman's youngest son who became a pirate. He dreamed of love and adventure, but had his heart twisted by loss and revenge.

This is their story.

"Mom!" Henry's footsteps are loud on the floor, hurried. He's in Emma's bedroom in seconds, his book open.

"What's up, Henry?" Emma's half-dressed, on her way to the hospital to question Hook and make sure that he hasn't staged a jail break. Why couldn't she have petty theft and vandalism like most regular sheriffs?

"I think you need to see this!" Henry's approaching that age where he's gangly and a little clumsy and he flings himself on the bed, the book in front of him.

"Later, alright?" Emma checks her watch. Ever since she came back from the Enchanted Forest her timekeeping has been a poor excuse for a joke. David - _Dad_ - is going to kill her and Emma is not going to be the first sheriff of Storybrooke to be given a lecture about tardiness from her father.

"But Mom-"

"Later, Henry." Emma kisses her son's head and smoothes his dark hair. She loves her son, but she has to at least look like she's working or Gold and Regina will have her run out of town.

"This is important!" Henry's got the book open; Emma swears it grows more pages each time she sees it. What else is left to plunder from the fairy story vault, she wonders?

She sighs. Hook shooting Belle is important. The possibility of Hook rampaging around town searching for Gold is important. The possibility that Gold might kill Hook on sight is important. Henry's book is important, but right now, being Sheriff is more important.

"I promise that when I'm done, I'll listen." Emma feels guilty; would Regina listen to Henry right now? "But you need to go back to Regina's."

Henry sighs, closes his book. "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you."

The pirate's propped up in bed when Emma walks into his room. "Swan!" Even bruised and battered and handcuffed to a hospital bed he can't get rid of the leer in his voice. There aren't enough words in the world to describe how much she wants to knock his smile off his face.

"Broken ribs, a fractured wrist, sprained ankle and a concussion." Emma reads Hook's medical chart and wonders if he's got enough treasure on the Jolly Roger to pay his medical bill. "That's not including a Belle without a memory, a Gold who wants you dead and a town afraid of the outsider bleeding out in Whale's ER. I just hope your revenge was worth it."

"If it hurts him then of course it was." Hook offers her a ghost of that smile. _First beanstalk?_

"Trust me: from where I'm sitting, it doesn't look that way."

"He killed my love."

Through his bravado, Hook looks tired. Everyone in this town looks tired; carrying around a curse and two lives must be exhausting. Especially for Regina and Rumple but now Hook, too. Revenge might be sweet but its also exhausting, she imagines. Henry aside, Emma doesn't know what it is to love so hard that she would cross oceans and continents to avenge them. Is that love, or obsession? But then she thinks about the years she spent in Tallahassee and bites her tongue.

_It wasn't obsession. It wasn't revenge. It was searching for answers. There's a difference_.

"You should count yourself lucky." Emma's fingers toy with the corner of the blanket, her eyes on the pirate. "Gold would have killed you."

Hook's good hand curls into a fist. "He is welcome to try."

"There isn't going to be blood on our streets, Hook." David - Charming - _Dad_ (Emma's going to have trouble keeping up) - steps into the room, hand on hip, Mary-Margaret - Snow - _Mom_ - trailing behind.

"Oh good; the whole family's here." Hook winces, reaches for his blanket, curls the fingers of his good hand around the fabric. His eyes are never still and Emma thinks about her time in the Enchanted Forest and tries to imagine what this must be like for him.

"I ran into Henry, on his way to Regina's." Snow's clutching Henry's book to her chest. "Emma, there's something you need to see."

Emma wants to roll her eyes. "Mary-Margaret - _Mom_ - this isn't a good time."

"Look." Her mom pushes the book under Emma's nose and reaches for her husband's hand.

Emma stares at the book, eyes looking but not seeing the pictures and the words.

"What is it?" Hook tries to lean forwards to see what's so interesting that it has everyone else transfixed, but pain and handcuffs conspire against him and he leans back with a frustrated sigh.

Emma stares at Hook, stares at the page. "No." She says. _No, no, no, no. This isn't happening_. "Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me." She closes the book with a slam. "It doesn't mean anything. Its just a fairy story. Everyone knows that you can't believe everything you read-"

"Mom, you know that isn't true." Henry's eyes are flickering between the pirate on the bed and his mom. "Not when it comes to this book."

"It _isn't_ possible." Emma folds her arms, glares at her son.

"Its never been wrong about anything else." Mary-Margaret's voice is soft, but right now she may as well be screaming it from the rooftops; Emma wants to take her mother's words and put them somewhere empty and silent where no-one will ever hear, speak or think of them again.

"I know I might be slightly incapacitated at the moment, but could someone kindly tell me what you're all talking about?" Hook's fingers ghost against the worn book, drawing it onto his lap and Henry's on hand to assist, opening the book and urging the pirate to push the pages aside.

"For once Hook and I agree on something." David stares at his wife and daughter. "Could someone please tell me what I'm missing?"

"Oh my." Hook reads enough, throws his head back and starts to laugh. "Well isn't this is cosy." He grins at David and Emma wants to hit him. "Here." He offers the book to David and winks at Emma. "Aren't you going to tell me welcome to the family? And I knew you couldn't resist me for long, love."

Emma crosses her arms, glares at him. "You're disgusting."

"True Love!" David throws the book on the bed.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Mary-Margaret finds her daughter in the hospital cafeteria nursing a cup of coffee. "You okay?" She slips into the chair without waiting for an invitation and stares at her daughter. Whether it's the Enchanted Forest or Storybrooke, life can be very unfair. How is she to be a mother to this woman that she doesn't know?

"Oh yeah." Emma takes a long drink from the vending-machine cup, grimaces. "Just great."

"Can I do anything?"

Emma stares out of the hospital window. Rain outside, a chill in the air; it feels like fall is here to stay. "Take Henry's book and throw it in the harbour?"

Mary-Margaret smiles. "I don't think that would change what's in there. You and Captain Hook are-"

"True Love, thanks for reminding me." Emma throws the cup in the trash. "The book's been wrong before, right?"

"I don't think so." Mary-Margaret thinks about the picture she saw, the woman with the long blonde hair who was the image of her daughter, kissing a man who could never be anyone other than Captain Hook. Who needed to read the words when the image was so … decisive?

Emma sighs, leans back in her chair. She looks tired. "He asked me, once, if I'd ever been in love."

"He did?" Mary-Margaret can't contain her surprise. The idea of the pirate asking her daughter such a personal question is … not that much of a shock at all, actually. She was _there_ in the Enchanted Forest, after all. Was Charming ever that obvious? "When?"

"On the beanstalk." Emma pulls candies from nowhere, idly pops one in her mouth. "He said I was an open book to him. Scary thing was, was that he was actually right. Kind of, anyway."

"Well what did you say to him?"

"About what?"

Mary-Margaret thinks about Henry and what Emma's told her about his father. "About being in love?"

"Does it matter?" Emma throws the candies in the trash, too. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. None of this matters. So the book says that Hook and I are True Love; maybe we are and maybe we aren't. It doesn't change that he's a pirate, and he's a liar, and he's untrustworthy, and if it means screwing us over to enact his revenge then he'd do it."

Mary-Margaret's never heard vehemence like that in her daughter's voice; even Emma doesn't speak of Regina like that. She thinks back to their time in the Enchanted Forest, the words exchanged in Rumple's cell, Hook's face at their parting. Something had happened between them, then, something that's been gnawing at her daughter ever since. Emma might be angry with Hook, but she's angry at herself, too.

"True Love doesn't happen for no reason, Emma." She reaches for her daughter's hands. She's never noticed before, but Emma has hands like her grandmother, Snow's beloved mother. Cora has so much to answer for. "You shouldn't dismiss it so lightly."

"Oh right, I forgot: it's the most powerful force in all the land." Emma sounds like she's reading from a script.

"It brought your father and I together, saved my life." Mary-Margaret's voice is sharp in a way it rarely is. "Do not talk about it so lightly."

"Fine, fine, alright." Emma exhales a long breath. "Hook, Mary-Margaret?"

Mary-Margaret smiles. "Maybe its time you should try calling him Killian."

Emma rolls her eyes. "Yeah, right." She stands up, chair legs scraping against floor tile. Her daughter wears a mask again that even the truest soul would struggle to breach. Is Hook up for that? "I need to find out what's going on with the guy who hit him. If he remembers anything, we have a serious problem."

"What about Killian?"

Emma shrugged. "Hook's chained to a bed. What's the worst that could happen?"

"So." Hook tries to sit up but the damned chains are making that very difficult. "You know, this doesn't need to be as awkward as it is, Charming."

"Oh, I think it does." Charming looks furious; Hook can still appreciate it even if he is feeling drunk from the pain. "You are not my daughter's true love."

Hook wants to laugh but the pain's a little too much. The rather shapely nurses have left him a handy little device that administers relief, but he's found that it makes him rather woozy, and here, in this strange place, he wants, _needs_ to be sharp.

"Oh, I don't know." Hook's enjoying this a little too much but then, his father always said he knew no limits. "Seems like you really should believe everything you read around here, especially that book your grandson seems to love so much."

Hook can just about grasp the book but it's a struggle, but now its resting on his lap, open at the page. _That_ page.

It's not a great likeness of either of them, but it isn't so much the likeness as it is the emotion that is slipping from the old parchment, almost blurry like seawater on paint.

He and Swan as True Love? Well she sure has a funny way of showing it. But he always did enjoy a challenge.

"You know, I have been told that I improve, upon further acquaintance." He stares at the picture in the book. "Maybe your daughter will feel the same. Her mother did, with you."

"You aren't Emma's true love." Charming snatches the book away and slams it shut. "You're a pirate. You almost killed Belle."

"So you're saying that Rumplestilskin deserves true love and I don't?" Hook wonders if Emma would mind if he gutted her father like a fish on the deck of the Jolly Roger.

"No." Charming leans close and Hook can smell anger and righteousness on his skin like old rum. "I'm just saying you don't deserve my daughter."

Hook grins because the alternative is to punch Charming in the face. "I think that Emma's more than capable of making that decision, don't you? I mean, dress it up all you like but you did put the lass in a magic wardrobe and send her here all alone. Doesn't exactly make me think that you know much about what Emma wants, to be honest."

Charming's neck goes very red but no noise comes out. He just stands there like a fish out of water until the curtain parts and Emma appears.

"Ah, my love!" Hook decides right then that he's definitely going to enjoy this true love business. "Don't tell me that you've come to heal me with True love's kiss? I warned you that you couldn't resist me for long."

"Whale says the guy's got to have surgery." Emma throws him a dark look, one Hook came to know very well in the Enchanted Forest. "He doesn't know if he'll make it. I was going to look in on Belle, unless you're ..." Her voice trails off, as though she's realised for the first time that her father is glaring at her true love with barely disguised fury. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Nothing that can't wait until later." Hook's decided that Emma's rather beautiful when she's caught off-guard. Her cheeks go pink like she's out on the deck. Milan loved the feel of the cold sea air against her cheeks, God she was pretty like that.

He swallows hard, stares at the tattoo on his wrist. Milah was his true love. Swan is ... infuriating. Even so, it would be rude not to flirt just a little, and Killian Jones might be many things, but he is always a gentleman.

_It was a nasty cut; beanstalks were deceptively sharp creatures. Her blood was oxygen rich and pungent. She hadn't trusted him, he knew that, but she had trusted him enough to let him dress her wound. Using his teeth had just been too much to resist_.

"Now, about that kiss?" Hook wiggles his eyebrows, gives Emma a smirk. As he predicts, she just rolls her eyes. This is going to be fun.

"I'll see you later. Don't even think about leaving." Emma turns to leave.

"You know, if we're fated to be together we should at least get to know each other a little better, darling!" He calls after her. She doesn't so much as break stride, her father hot on her heels with a final dark look in Hook's direction.

The nurses have shown him the wonders of the grey box called television; Hook thinks it sounds a little bit like brain rot more potent than any liquor, but as his pain level mounts and unconsciousness comes as dark as the sea it's easy to lose hours watching approximations of life on a glass screen.

"Hi." Emma's son appears at his side, clutching the book of fabled stories, the all-seeing book that never lies.

"Henry." Hook struggles to sit up. Damn Emma for cuffing him to this bed. "Be a good chap and fetch me some water, would you?"

Henry obliges and Hook feels the lad's eyes on him as he helps him drink. "I always thought Mom's true love would be my dad. Or someone with two hands."

"Sorry to disappoint you, lad. And I really wouldn't believe everything you read."

"You don't love my mom?" Henry looks like Hook has kicked his puppy.

The pirate sighs, his mind snatching conversations from the Enchanted Forest.

_You chose her. And the consequences of that decision._

_Emma, look at me. Have I told you a lie?_

_I'm the worst human around._

"Help me with some more water, lad, and we'll see. Name's Henry, isn't it?"

Henry nods. "What shall I call you?"

Hook grins. "That is a very good question."

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Emma trudges back to the apartment, exhaustion clinging to her skin like dried sweat. She wants a bath and for this day to just be over. She wants to lie and soak in Mary-Margaret's tub and let her brain run through the events of today.

She and Hook as True Love, really?

Emma can hear laughter on the other side of the door, a man and a boy. _Henry_. Emma sighs. She had promised Regina that they would work out some kind of joint custody agreement; Emma might be the saviour but she's under no illusions that it has been Regina who has parented Henry these past ten years, not her. The human being he is can be laid entirely at her feet; doesn't that have to count for something, even if she is the Evil Queen?

"Henry, you need to haul your butt to Regina's-" Emma opens the door and the rest of her words die on her lips.

"Mom!' Henry's off the couch to hug her but Emma doesn't really see him. All she can do is stare at the man on the couch.

"What is _he_ doing here?"

"Don't sound too displeased to see me, love." Hook tries to get up from the couch but it's a bit of a struggle. "Is that any way to talk to your true love?"

Emma stares at her son, who's staring up at her with those eyes so like his father's. "He didn't want to stay in the hospital and he didn't have anywhere else to go and I just figured that since the book says-"

"Henry." Emma takes her son's arm and walks him into the kitchen, just far away enough from Hook's ears. She can see two dirty plates on the coffee table and what looks like a pizza box in the trash; Mary-Margaret will kill Henry if he's spent her secret chocolate money on pizza for Captain Hook. "Look at me. You checked him out of the hospital and brought him _here_?"

"He checked himself out." Henry glances over his shoulder and for the first time Emma wants to throttle him. "Mom, he doesn't like being there."

Emma wants to scream. Hook and her son alone for God knows' how long? "He could have gone back to the _Jolly Roger_!"

Henry sighs. "I couldn't let him do that. Not when he's sick and he's your-"

"Don't." Emma shakes her head. "Do not say those words to me, Henry Mills. They are not an excuse or a get-out clause. How long have you two been here? Why aren't you in school? Does Regina know that you're here?"

Movement behind them, when Emma stares beyond her son she sees Hook struggling into his coat. "It appears that my presence here is causing some friction between you and your boy. If you'd be so kind as to point me towards the direction of my ship, I assure you that I won't trespass on your time a moment longer."

His arm's in a sling and he's limping, face bruised and battered. Without his hook he doesn't look like much of a threat and despite everything Emma feels guilt prickle her throat.

_Try something new, darling. Its called trust. _

The last time Emma saw Hook he was on his back in the sand, a magic portal swirling on the ground. She hadn't trusted him at all. Turns out, it was with good reason. How might their last meeting gone if she had trusted him atop that beanstalk?

_It's alright, love_, she can almost hear him say. _I won't hold it against you_.

_And just because you don't trust him doesn't mean he wasn't right, on that beanstalk._

"I'll drive you."

The car journey is quiet, the radio on but low. If Hook's interested by the music that comes out of the dash then he doesn't show it, just stares out of the window and watches the rain.

"An interesting world, this."

"Could say that about your world." There's traffic up ahead; Emma can't see what. Her radio chirps but nothing on the scanner for her. Not far to the docks and then she can be on her way.

"I've been to so many worlds, thought I had seen everything. How wrong I was." Hook shifts in his seat, winces.

"You should be back in the hospital."

"I am well enough, thank you. Your boy took ample care of me."

"He shouldn't have brought you to my apartment. He should have left you in the hospital to heal."

Hook produces painkillers from his sling, the hospital logo stamped on the bottle. "Careful, Swan. You say that too loud and people will think that you care. And you really shouldn't blame Henry; I would have left that infernal place whether he was there or not. He just thought that I should wait for you, since we're destined for each other."

"Alright." Emma pulls over and slams on the brakes. "That's enough. Let's get one thing clear, alright? We are not true love. We don't even like each other, and I won't have you filling my son's head with crap about true love-"

"Now hold on a second, lass." Hook's face darkens, his eyes angry. "I haven't breathed a word to your boy about this."

"I don't believe you." Emma stares at him and knows it's a lie; honesty is written all over Hook's face.

"Believe what you like." Hook shrugs. "Search my face for the truth, since you've such a talent for discovering deception."

Emma grinds her teeth, grips the steering wheel. She did not ask for this. She didn't ask for any of this. When she lit that candle on her twenty-eighth birthday she did not wish for this. "I just don't want Henry to get the wrong idea. He reads that book like its gospel; I think it could tell him that the moon was made of cheese and he'd believe it. I don't want him getting his hopes up, or getting the wrong idea about you. And me."

A flicker of that smile finds its way onto Hook's face. "And what wrong idea would that be?"

"You're a pirate." Emma says, that familiar anger inside her again. "You double-crossed us in the Enchanted Forest and you did it here again. You've been working with Cora from the beginning."

"I meant what I said on that beanstalk." Hook snaps. "Every word. I know I lied to you at first but have I told you a lie since then?" He shifts in his seat so he's facing her. "I offered you my loyalty when we went after that compass and it was sincere, Emma. You have proved to be as untrustworthy to me as I did to you. I never lied to you about why I wanted to come here and I would have helped you get back here."

"Only because you wanted to come here to kill Rumplestilskin!"

Hook smiles and for the first time since Emma's known him, he looks sad. "And the answer to that will remain a mystery to us both." Fingers on the handle; Hook releases the door with considerable effort. "I believe the port is much further. Many thanks for the ride in this contraption, now I'll bid you goodnight."

He's gone before Emma can say anything else, limping towards the docks. Emma could catch him easily if she wanted to but she doesn't; she just stares until he disappears from view.

Henry's waiting for her when she arrives home, Mary-Margaret and David in the kitchen. The plates have been cleared away, the trash emptied; nothing to suggest that Hook was ever here. Only the book, open at that page.

Henry's off the couch as soon as Emma opens the door. "I'm sorry." He sounds sincere, if rehearsed, and Emma can see Mary-Margaret silently nodding in the background. _She put him up to this_. "I shouldn't have brought him here, not without asking you first."

"Henry." Emma sits on the couch and takes the book from him, closes it firmly. "You have got to understand that just because something is in this book, it doesn't mean that its going to happen."

"But-"

"No, Henry." Emma shakes her head. She loves her son but he has to learn that he can't upend her life because he read about it in a book, even if it is _this_ book. "There are no buts here. Not about this. You don't know Hook except what you've read about in this book. You don't know him. I do. The first time we met, he lied to me. He double-crossed us and he would have either killed us or left us stranded with no way back. He's one of Cora's allies, Henry, and I know you think that Regina is bad, but trust me: her mom is a whole lot worse. All Hook cares about is revenge. He doesn't care about me, you or anyone else here in Storybrooke."

"He's your true love." Henry stares at the worn book cover. "You know that everything happens for a reason, and if Mr Gold can find true love, why can't Hook? You're always telling me to try to find the good in people; why can't you do it with him?"

The car ride to Regina's is quiet and awkward. Henry clutches the book like it's a lifeline, Emma stews in her own juices like she's meat in a slow cooker. Regina takes the boy with a knowing smile but keeps her own counsel and for that Emma's thankful.

Gold's waiting for her when she returns home, sat in her apartment like he owns the place. He's clear about what he wants, calls in that favour that he's held over Emma like the curse he cast for Regina.

"I heard, about what happened." Gold's fingers linger on the front door. "With Hook."

Emma crosses her arms, stares at the puppet master who jerks all their strings. She thinks about what Hook told her, the vehemence in his voice. What has happened between them? Would either of them tell her the truth, or is the truth only what they remember and what time and years of bitterness has twisted it to be? Hook says that Gold killed his love, his Milah, but if Emma knows one thing its that Gold never does anything without a reason. He knows no altruism nor mindless revenge; his generosity is as calculated as his cruelty. He might have killed Milah, but what did Hook inflict upon Gold to draw such ire?

"I'm sure you did."

"Are we going to have a problem, Ms Swan?"

"With Hook?" Emma thinks about the sad figure shuffling towards the Jolly Roger. "I don't know."

"I mean with you." Gold's face turns murderous. "The book never lies, and he is your true-"

"No, we don't have a problem." Emma feels like a broken record. "Hook's a pirate. Nothing more."

"As you say. Well, I'll see you tomorrow, then."

Gold's gone as soon as he's there. Emma shuts and locks the door behind her.

Later, when Mary-Margaret and David have gone to do disgusting things in her bedroom (they have been separated for twenty-eight years, after all), Emma retreats to her bedroom. It's a small space, barely room for the furniture that's in it. Emma sinks onto the bed, toes off her shoes. This is the longest time she's spent in a place aside from Tallahassee.

_Maybe I was in love, once_.

She shakes her head. Whatever it was she and Neal had, it wasn't love. It was … something else.

She lies on the bed, hand trailing to the other pillow, forever cold. She can hear giggling below, her mother's laugh. How long has it been since Emma laughed like that with a man, or with anyone? Times like this she wishes she had a friend, someone she could call when the nights were long and cold and she wanted someone to talk to.

There's a nightstand by Emma's bed, a simple thing she found in a thrift store. She's had it as long as she can remember. One drawer, just enough space for the things she's picked up over the years.

Its at the bottom, hidden beneath a photo album that has never been used. Wrapped in a paper bag, hidden from view; Emma doesn't know why she's kept it.

The scarf carries the faint scent of rum even though she washed all the blood out of it, rum and salt and the sea. She doesn't press it to her nose to inhale, close her eyes and smile like she's seen people do in movies. She doesn't touch it or press it to her cheek. She just sets it on the bed and stares at it, willing answers from the soft material, but none come, and then night becomes dawn and the knock from Gold comes to the door.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

A/N: I know I said this when we started but we're now venturing into pretty AU territory. I've played around a little bit with the timeline for the sake of character development, but it should all chime together fairly well. Also, a big thank-you to all the kind people who have read and/or reviewed so far. This is my first story for this fandom, so it's a little nerve-wracking but I'm glad to see that you're enjoying it.

Another music inspiration: Sarah Bareilles, Satellite Call

###

Mary-Margaret feels nervous. _Really_ nervous.

Snow White feels angry. Angry, and worried.

It's a disconcerting sensation, to have two personalities inside of you. Snow prides herself on being able to handle almost anything (she _did_ navigate a sleeping curse, a murderous step-mother, trolls, dwarves, werewolves, war, and a curse that almost destroyed everything, after all), but Mary-Margaret is a bag of nerves. Ask her to teach a class of ten year olds to build bird houses? Absolutely. Read a story to a coma patient? No problem. But this?

Neither Mary-Margaret nor Snow has ever been on a boat before, never mind dealt with a pirate. Not until now. And she can't even see the boat, even though she knows its there. What will Hook do if another boat decides to dock here?

Mary-Margaret squares her shoulders and pulls her coat a little tighter around herself. She's here as Emma's friend as much as she's here as her mother, and both Snow White and Mary-Margaret believe in true love. So she takes a deep breath and steps aboard the _Jolly Roger_.

"Hello?" Her steps are loud on the wood; how did Hook manage to navigate it here without damage? Its cold on the deck, right in the path of the wind and the sea, and for a minute Mary-Margaret stops and just stares at the ocean beyond. Maine might not be the Enchanted Forest, but standing here, with nothing but the wind in her face, Mary-Margaret feels light and free.

"You know, the likeness between you and your daughter is uncanny." Hook's next to her and Mary-Margaret turns around with a jump.

"You scared me."

The pirate dips his head. "I would apologise, but you are trespassing on my ship and I am injured. Now, what is it that I can do for you on this rather bleak morning?"

Mary-Margaret stares hard at the pirate, can't imagine a time where he can't take care of himself. "Henry's book says that you're Emma's true love."

"Yes, I believe I saw that particular newsflash. What?" Hook says when he sees the surprise on Mary-Margaret's face. "Your grandson introduced me to the wonders of television and its language. Now, why are you here?"

"I came to see how you were recovering."

Hook gives her an indulgent smile. "You didn't seem to care very much about my recovery when your daughter chained me to a beanstalk. Or when she was punching me in the face."

"That was before."

"Oh, before I became integral to your daughter's happiness? Well, that's very thoughtful. And here I was thinking that you always acted with goodness in your heart?"

Mary-Margaret grinds her teeth. She will not lose her temper with this pirate. "You were allied with Cora. You lied to us from the beginning."

"You sound just like your lovely daughter."

Mary-Margaret wants to hit him. "True love is no laughing matter, Killian. Are you going to continue to make fun of this, or give it the respect that it deserves?"

Hook sighs, stares out to sea. "What is it that you want from me?"

"Do you really believe that my daughter is your true love?"

"The book doesn't lie."

"That isn't what I asked." Mary-Margaret stares at Hook. She might not have her daughter's talent for rooting out liars but she's no fool and she knows what a man in love looks like. She knows what true love can do, the power that it holds. She will not deny her daughter that, even if her daughter and this pirate seem intent on denying it to themselves.

"I already had my true love." Hook's eyes grow as dark as the stubble and bruises that beard his face. "She's gone. There's no love left in me, nothing left to love. Rumplestilskin saw to that."

"Even the blackest heart can be redeemed. You have a choice here, Hook. None of us are who we used to be, in the Enchanted Forest. You can stay as you were, consumed by vengeance, or you can rise above it the way Gold and Regina never have." Her face softens when she sees Hook's face. "Abandoning your search for vengeance won't mean you love Milah less, Killian. You can't replace your love for her with vengeance any more than you can replace vengeance with your love for my daughter. But you can make peace, move on-"

"Don't talk about Milah." Hook turns his back on Emma's mother. "I'm sure that your motives for being here are just, but leave me be."

"No!" Mary-Margaret takes a step forward. "This isn't just about you, Killian. Its about Emma now, too, and she is my daughter and I won't stand by and see her hurt because you're too pig-headed and stubborn to know better."

Hook sets his jaw. "You have said quite enough now, my lady. Now, if you please, I have places to go and vengeance to seek, and I have waited for it quite long enough."

Mary-Margaret sighs. Rarely has she felt more helpless. As she steps off the _Jolly Roger_ she says, "Just so you know, Killian: Cora is worse than Gold. You might hate him, but right now he is the only thing standing between Cora and her vengeance, and she won't stop until Storybrooke is destroyed. Do you really think you could live in a world where Emma isn't in it? Think about that as you have your vengeance."

###

Emma doesn't hesitate when she hits Hook over the head with the fire extinguisher.

"Stop it!" She kicks him when he's down, probably re-breaking a few ribs. Henry stands behind her, his eyes wide.

"Mom, that-"

"I know who it is!" Emma kicks Hook again and he groans. "He's stabbed your grandfather!"

Hook braces himself against his Hook and struggles to sit up. Blood's dripping in his eye and he's pretty sure that his stitches are torn. "Grandfather?"

"Yes, jackass!" Emma kneels beside Gold and rips his shirt, wincing when she sees the yellow poison there. "He's Henry's grandfather!"

"Emma!" A man's voice, noises on the stairs; for the first time Hook has noticed that this structure they're in is rather sturdily built. It's a good job, too, for he's made of quicksand, caught like a fish. Mary-Margaret's words come back to him. _What has he done?_

He stares at Gold, sees the thin sheen of perspiration on his upper lip. For the first time since their initial meeting, he sees fear in his eyes.

_My revenge_, Hook thinks, smiles grimly. _This is what I've done_.

Baelfire comes down the stairs, his eyes darting between Emma and Henry and Gold and Hook. He stops talking, stares at them all like he's caught in some awful web.

"Hello Baelfire." Hook's tattoo itches terribly for the first time ever. "Its been awhile, eh?"

"You son-of-a-bitch!" Baelfire steps over his father's prone body and grabs Hook's collar. Fist meets face once before Emma pulls him off; Hook tastes blood in his mouth and it is bitter indeed.

"Stop it!"

"He's Mom's true love!" Henry shouts just as Emma does and Baelfire's fist falls like a wrecking ball to lie slack against his side.

"True love?" He looks from Hook to Emma to Henry and back again. "No." He shakes his head, pulls at his hair. "No, no, no. Not again. Not him again."

"Come on." Emma helps Rumple's son away from Hook. "Let's just get upstairs and we'll figure this out, alright?"

Its then that Hook realises.

Rumple is Henry's grandfather. Baelfire is Rumple's son.

Baelfire is …

Hook stares at Emma and feels that quicksand turn to water, and then he's drowning.

###

Emma watches Neal and Henry on the deck of the Jolly Roger, father teaching son to steer. They laugh and joke and Henry jumps up to high-five his dad and Neal's smile could split the earth in two.

_I lied to him. I kept this from him. From them both._

_He gave you up to the cops. You went to prison because of him._

_He said there was no other way._

_Funny how his way meant me going to prison while he walked away._

Emma turns away and breathes the sea air. She's never seen the east coast from the neck of a boat before, certainly not an enchanted battleship that is – quite literally – right out of a fairy story.

"You know, it isn't good form to tie up a Captain on his own ship." Hook's been relieved of his hook and is lashed to the mast. "In fact, I believe its called mutiny."

"Well we aren't your crew and you're lucky you aren't walking the plank." Emma walks up to Hook and wants to hit him until he stops talking and then pitch his body overboard. "What were you thinking, Hook? You show up to New York on the _Jolly Roger_ and stab Gold?"

"Of my revenge."

Emma blows out a deep breath and steps away because if she doesn't then she'll run him through with his own sword. "Well you've just poisoned Henry's grandfather. I hope you're happy."

"He was my enemy long before he was Henry's grandfather."

"That isn't the point!" Emma's voice is a furious whisper. "This isn't a game, Hook, it isn't about keeping score. My son has just found out that he has a father, and a grandfather, and two grandparents who love him and you have just ruined it!"

Hook leans forwards, anger bright in his dark eyes. "I hate to disappoint you, love, but not everything in this world revolves around your boy. He killed Milah and broke my heart long before you were a glimmer in your mother's eye."

Emma punches him in the face. It hurts but boy does it feel good.

"Never come near me again." She whispers, angry tears on her cheeks. "Do not talk to me, do not look at me, and never look at Henry. We get back to Storybrooke and you sail as far away from here as possible and if Henry's grandfather lives then I won't come looking for you."

Hook's jaw has already swollen but he tips his head and meets her eyes. As you wish, my lady."

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Emma's world is a strange place; Hook cannot stop staring. It is not like the Enchanted Forest or Neverland, any of the other worlds he has known in the years he has set mast and sail to wind to see where it takes him. This world has buildings made from steel and glass, medicines that cure ailments that should be fatal, light and heat and sounds that come from nowhere and bombard the senses.

Hook thinks about what Emma said. Maybe, once this is over, he will have a new adventure here; gorge on what this world has to offer. It will offer him adventure to be sure, but will it offer him something to fill the void inside him that he feels when he thinks about the Crocodile lying in his hold, slowly dying?

He had once thought that no death would be painful enough for Rumplestilskin, but now that its here, he feels … empty and full, thirsty and wet. Conflicted. He feels conflicted.

Laughter breaks the bow of his ship; he hasn't heard it on the _Jolly Roger_ for so long that he's forgotten what it sounds like. He casts his eyes to the bridge, where he can see Baelfire teaching Henry how to steer. He can see it, now that he knows. There's a likeness there not just in colouring. Their gait is similar, their way of standing and walking. They laugh the same, stare at Emma with that same intense brown-eyed stare.

Hook doesn't want to look any more.

He thinks about Mary-Margaret, the way she looked at him as though she could make everything right simply by believing. Believing in him, and Emma. Believing that they can stop Cora and Regina.

_I brought Cora here. I brought her to Henry and Emma for my vengeance_.

_I don't mean to upset you, Emma, but I think we make quite the team._

"Here." Emma has found his cache of salted meat and there's a plate thrust in front of him. "I won't see you starve. Or die of dehydration. I found this."

Hook's eyes stray to the bottle in her hand, a flask that Milah gave to him. His tattoo itches so hard he wants to cut it from his skin. "Don't you know its poor form to explore the Captain's quarters without his consent? Or is this world too ill-mannered?"

A blush stains Emma's cheeks. "Neal told me about you. And Milah. She was his mom. You took her from him, didn't you? From them both. No wonder they both hate you."

"I did not take anything that did not want to be taken." Hook picks at the meat with his free hand, hungrier than he thought. The meat is good but he thinks about the foodstuff called pizza that Henry produced for him and his mouth begins to water.

Emma stares at him as though he's a stranger to him. His tattoo burns right up to his neck. "How could you do it?"

Hook casts a glance back to Baelfire and Henry. "Tell me, Emma, why is it that Henry and Baelfire knew nothing of each other's existence until today? Do not talk to me about taking something that did not belong to you. Yes, I took a man's wife and a boy's father. I am not proud of it but she wanted to be taken. She hated her life and she wanted romance, and adventure, and I gave her that. But you? You took that decision from your son and his father."

"Shut up." Emma's fingers curl into a fist; Hook can tell she's thinking about hitting him again. He's sure she shook a few teeth loose the last time. "Just shut up."

"Told you, Swan: open book."

"Shut up before I cut out your tongue with your own sword."

Emma whirls around and walks away before Hook can say any more.

###

The stars are covered this close to the coast; too much light from the cities. Hook misses the stars. In the Enchanted Forest he could chart a course by the stars alone. Here? He would be like a blind man.

"Its cold up here." Henry hands him a blanket, which he recognises as his own. "I thought you might want something from your cabin."

"I'd like to be in my cabin, lad."

"My mom's in there."

Something flares in Hook's chest. "Is she? It would have been nice to have been asked permission. Tell her not to make a mess."

"She's looking for a cure for Mr Gold – I mean, Grandpa's – poison. You do have a cure, don't you?"

Hook's tired and his legs are sore. He slides down the mast to sit, draping the blanket across his shoulders. "Afraid not, my boy. Not in this world, anyway."

Henry watches Hook; the pirate can feel eyes on him. "Why did you do it? Why did you stab him?"

Movement on the deck; Hook watches Emma approach Neal and his heart struggles to move as though Cora had reached into his chest and snatched it. "Look at your mother, Henry. What do you see?"

Henry stares, shrugs. "My mom. Why?"

"You love her, don't you?"

"More than anything."

"More than life? Would you die for her?"

"Yes. But don't tell her that. She doesn't like it when I say stuff like that."

Hook smiles. "Your secret is safe with me, lad. Now, imagine someone taking your mother, and hurting her. Imagine watching someone reaching into her chest and taking her heart and squeezing it until it was nothing."

Henry's eyes are like saucers. "Mr Gold did that to your mom?"

"No, lad. Not my mother." He points at Baelfire. "His mother. My love."

"But I thought that she was Mr Gold's wife"

"Lad, Mr Gold is interested in things. He is interested in power, and having power over other people. Why else do you think he wanted your mother when she was born, or Cinderella's babe-" Hook feels a flash of guilt go through him; Henry looks like he's about to cry. "Forget it, Henry. That's between me and your grandfather, not you and he. Poor form to taint your judgement like that."

Henry nods, stares at the pirate. "Are you going to try to stop killing Mr Gold when we're back in Storybrooke?"

Hook leans his head against his mask. He feels very tired. "Your lovely mother has made it quite clear that I am not welcome in Storybrooke. I'll be leaving, as soon as we dock."

Henry stands up. "You can't!" He exclaims. "That isn't now its supposed to happen! None of it is happening how its meant to happen! You aren't meant to leave, you're meant to stay here with us and be with my mom and make each other happy and save Storybrooke! Haven't either of you been listening this whole time?"

Hook shakes his head, his tiredness replaced by sadness. "Henry, none of this is how its meant to be. It just is."

###

Emma gets very little sleep that night. Determined to spite Hook, she lies in his bunk with the covers strewn all over the cabin. It smells like rum and the sea, salty and coarse. She thinks of Milah, wonders how many times they lay down together in this bunk.

Milah had seen something in Hook – in _Killian_ – worth loving. She left her husband, her boy, to be with him. Was that simple flight of fancy or desire for adventure? Emma is intimately acquainted with the feeling of _just wanting to be somewhere else and change your life_. She spent eleven months wanting to do just that, years afterwards searching for answers that just weren't there.

_Neal has a fiancé. He's moved on. He forgot about you._

_Hook was right. I have been alone all my life. He knew_.

Fingertips on the door; Henry's head appears when the door swings open.

"Can I sleep in here tonight?"

He sounds subdued and Emma waits until he's settled in the crook of her arm before she says, "You alright?"

Her son shrugs, his long sigh hot on her arm. "True love is overrated, isn't it?"

###

Hook's asleep when Emma kicks him awake. "Get up."

The pirate struggles to his feet. "There's nicer ways of rousing a man from sleep and getting him to do your bidding, love."

"Cut it out." Emma can't believe she's about to do this. _My mother and my son are rubbing off on me_. "You told me once that I was an open book to you. Do you still believe that?"

Hook stares at Emma and feels something flare. For the first time since his hook sank into the crocodile's flesh, his tattoo has stopped itching. "Have I told you a lie since then?"

Emma crosses her arms. "We did make quite the team, when we defeated that giant."

"Smart as well as beautiful. That book really knows its stuff, doesn't it?"

Emma grinds her teeth. _This is such a bad idea_. "You know Cora, what she wants. Can you help us defeat her?"

"I'm sure I can."

"_Will_ you help us defeat her?"

"So I'm not being made to walk the plank after all?"

Emma sighs. "You were right. Before. What you said about you and Gold. And me and Neal. We've both been alone a long time, haven't we?"

"It can make making trusting people rather difficult."

Emma reaches for the keys to his chains. "You told me to try something new, once. Can I trust you now?"

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

A/N: I'm truly overwhelmed by the amount of love this story has received. I don't know if I'm really happy with this chapter, but here it is. And I couldn't resist a little bit of cliché fluff at the end ;-)

###

Gold can barely walk. Hooks doesn't offer to help Neal and David share the load. Emma tells herself not to push her luck.

_This is insane_, she thinks as they race back to Gold's shop. David puts him in the flat bed of his truck, Neal at his side. _Last night you wanted to kill him. Now he's helping you defeat Cora?_

They take her car back to Storybrooke. Hook rides shotgun.

"I never got the chance to tell you before, but this is quite the vessel, Swan." Hook fumbles with the seatbelt; Emma does it for him. "Manhandling me already? Can't say it isn't a fair prospect."

Emma sighs, pleased that Henry isn't with them. She's afraid he listens to the pirate far too much as it is. "Is this going to be a problem for you? Us teaming up to defeat Cora?"

"If it was I would have sailed the _Jolly Roger_ out of port."

Emma grips the steering wheel watches Hook as he stares out of the window. If she can trust him, he's a pretty big ace in the hole. If she can trust him. "Well, in case I don't get the chance to tell you later: thank you. And if you lie to me-"

"You'll cut my tongue out with my sword. It's a cutlass, but I believe I understand the sentiment." Hook grins, pats Emma's arm just as he had that day in the Enchanted Forest. "And you're welcome."

_First beanstalk?_

"Tell me about Cora." Emma takes a bend too hard and Hook lurches in his seat, rips the upholstery as his hook scrabbles for traction. "What's her angle?"

"Her angle?" Hook's eyes go wide as Emma clears the intersection too fast, ignores the honks and curses from other drivers.

"Yeah, her plan, her angle, her motivations."

"What motivates us all, lass?" Hook's hand teases against the door; he's a little paler than Emma would have expected. "Power, revenge – love. Does this vessel come with an anchor, and do you intend to use it in the future?"

"You sailed here on a wooden ship and you're anxious about a little driving?" Emma wants to laugh.

"If you recall, I have always been at the helm of my ship whenever I embark on a journey – woah!" Hook exclaims as Emma pulls the car to a stop outside Gold's pawn shop. For a long moment, he stares at his nemesis, sick and pale and poisoned. "Cora is like Rumple." He says quietly. "She is interested in power, and fear. She wields magic because she is afraid, because she wants people to be afraid of her and all tyrants are cowards at heart." He swallows. "Rumple was a coward, on our first encounter. I challenged him to a duel, for Milah. I told him that a man who won't fight for what he wants deserves what he gets." Hook stares at his hook. "I humiliated him. The second time we met he took my hand and murdered his wife. Tell me now, Emma: who is the bigger coward?"

Emma puts her hand on his arm, makes him look at her. For some reason she expected Hook to be cold, like a fish from the ocean or the sea water on her face, but he's warm; deliciously, humanly warm. "You came with Cora from the Enchanted Forest. You know what she knows. How do we stop her?"

Hook presses his lips together. "Cora wants power."

"Regina wants love."

"There is your answer. People who desire something so strongly will do anything to possess it. It makes them careless. That's how we catch them."

"Careless, huh?" Emma sighs. "Not really the detailed plan I was hoping for, but I guess we'll have to wing it."

She moves to open the door until there's a hand on her arm, Hook's eyes on hers.

"What made you change your mind?"

Emma watches her son help his father and grandfather out of David's truck. "Henry told me last night that he thought true love was overrated. That's the first time in all the time I've been here that I've ever heard him sound anything other than hopeful."

"He's like your mother."

Emma smiles. "I guess. I just … I don't want to lie to him, but I don't want to be the one to crush his hopes, either."

Hook smiles his pirate's smile. "Hope is the rarest treasure of all. And, if I am allowed to agree with your mother and your son, extremely underrated."

Emma smiles. _The rarest treasure of all_.

Has a nice ring to it.

###

Cora smirks when she sees Hook draw his cutlass and stand next to Emma. "Hook. Nice to see you again. I see that you really did make your choice on that beanstalk, didn't you?"

"Now, now, mother." Regina's smiling too, a bitter thing that twists her face. Hook always thought Regina would be beautiful when she stopped trying to curse everyone. "You know that nothing can stand in the way of true love. Now get out of our way."

"You aren't coming any closer." Charming slashes his sword at the air for effect. A simple flick of the wrist from Cora and he is through the door.

"Come on, Hook." She plays with the ball of fire in her hand, takes a step towards her old ally. "We were allies, once upon a time. Your pretty face made the journey here all the more bearable."

"Something you want to share with us, Hook?" Neal mutters.

"Nothing, I assure you." Hook takes a step to the side, positions himself in front of the spell that Emma cast.

_The spell that Emma cast_.

He'll think about just how _bloody brilliant_ she is later. Assuming that he lives that long.

"This is cosy." Cora stares at her three adversaries. "Emma Swan's loves standing with her to protect the man responsible for all your misery."

"You don't know the meaning of the word." Emma snaps, swings her sword.

"Careful, lass." Hook takes a step back. "Remember what I said."

Emma steals a look at him. Despite her sword and bravado, she looks afraid. "Careless." She whispers.

Regina and Cora attack. Hook flies through the door after Charming. The door slams closed and the wood shimmers.

"A spell." Charming's at Hook's side, arm out to help him up. The tumble ripped his stitches and he can feel blood dampen his shirt. "Come on, we'll find another way in."

"You aren't going to hit me with a crowbar?" Hook leans a little heavily on Emma's father, but Charming doesn't seem to mind.

A smile ghosts the other man's face. "Later. Now we need to help Emma-"

"No." Hook thinks about the flash of purple wool he saw from the corner of his eye. "Snow is gone."

###

Hook watches from a distance, the two true loves. Regina's grief has morphed into cold fury while Snow sits, numb to anything said or done around her. Rumple is on his feet and moving, that cool, aloof smile on his face, as though the past hours have been washed away like sand on the beach. Hook stares at him, wants to feel rage, fury, hopes dashed and flung like a cast away anchor, and he does, but then he looks at Emma and Henry standing over Snow and sighs. He made a promise, after all.

Rumple's words play out in his brain. _If I could go back, if I could go back_.

He didn't hear everything, but he heard enough. Rumple spoke these words to his true love, who has no idea who he is. He looks at Emma and tries to imagine what it would be like, even now, if something happened to her – if someone like _him_ – happened to her, and she forgot him.

Maybe his vengeance is complete, after all. But if it is, why does he taste bitter rum in his mouth?

"Come on." Emma and Charming help Snow to her feet, Charming lifting her as though she weighed nothing. "Let's get out of here."

Snow's mumbling on the way back to the apartment, Hook doesn't catch everything but he knows dark magic when he sees it and Snow held it in her hand and whispered Cora's name. Magic always comes with a price; Snow's cost stands to be steep indeed.

"Hey Hook?" Emma's standing in the doorway to Gold's shop, her hand on Henry's shoulder. "You coming?"

Hook can't help the smile on his face. "As you wish, my lady."

Neal and Henry part ways with Hook and Emma, and then it's just the two of them standing outside her yellow vessel, Emma twisting the keys in her hand. "You saw what my mom did in Regina's crypt, didn't you?"

"She did what she had to, to protect you all."

"Great." Emma sighs, opens the door. "Let's just get out of here."

She stops him, as he moves to get into her vessel. "I guess a thank you is in order. You didn't bail."

"I told you that you could trust me."

Emma smiles that smile she has, when she still hasn't got a measure on a person. "Uh-huh."

"And I did tell you that we made quite the team." Hook moves to get into the car, winces. "If you could kindly get me back to my ship, that would do rather well."

"Are you okay?"

"Nothing some solitude and rum won't cure."

Emma doesn't take him to the _Jolly Roger_, though. Inside of a few minutes she's stopped her vessel outside the same building that Henry brought him to only a few days ago.

"We are at your residence."

Emma rolls her eyes. "I'm not ditching you at the _Jolly Roger_."

"You're planning to thank me, Swan?" Hook can't resist. "Rethinking what the book says?"

"Don't push it."

"You know, I hate to point it out, but we do make quite the team. Much like your mother and father, if I remember."

Emma's fingers tease the door handle. "Let's start with allies and go from there."

"Allies?" Hook winces as he exits the vessel, follows Emma upstairs. "I thought we could at least call each other friends, now."

"Alright, now you're definitely pushing it."

###

Emma finds a medical kit in the bathroom. Hook's all too-eager to take off his shirt. Maybe bringing him back here wasn't such a good idea.

"Jeez." Emma lifts the dark fabric, stares at the blood and lacerations. "This is a mess. You should be in a hospital."

"I'm sure some of that bandage there will do very nicely." Hook winces as Emma cleans his wound. "You don't have any rum, do you?"

"David isn't really a rum drinker. We might have beer. Jeez, Hook, I think you need stitches."

"Not back to that infernal place." Hook watches Emma place a thick white bandage over his skin.

"Not a fan of hospitals, huh?"

"I've seen more than my fair share. Butcher's yards, most of them."

"Well, modern medicine isn't so bad. There. I think that should do it." Emma stares at the gauze. For the first time since she's met him, she's afraid to look him in the eye. "I've never had a friend before." She says, so quietly that she doesn't realise she's said it until she realises that Hook hasn't asked her to repeat herself. So she speaks again. "Mary-Margaret was my first real friend. I think its an orphan thing. You get used to being alone. Anyway, then she became _Mom_, and how is that going to work, right?"

"What about your boy?"

Emma's eyes flicker to the closed bathroom door. Mary-Margaret's crying, keening, sorrowful sounds. "I love Henry. I do. And maybe one day, he'll be my friend. But not now."

Hook looks at the tiled floor. "What about Baelfire?"

Emma laughs. "Neal wasn't my friend. He was … something else. I've never had a friend before."

Hook smiles. "Well you have one now."

"My first friend's a pirate and my parents are fairy tale characters. Who knew?" Emma sighs, begins to pack away the first aid kit, finds a slim plastic wrapper. "Here."

Hook stares at the proffered packet. "What in the world is this?"

"A toothbrush." Emma shrugs. "I can't fall asleep without cleaning my teeth. Figured you might want one before you hit the hay. I put some blankets on the couch; it's pretty comfortable."

Hook stares at her. For the first time since Emma chained him to Anton's lair, he looks speechless. "I … thank you."

_Last night I threatened to cut out his tongue. Now I'm letting him crash on my couch. What is wrong with me?_ "Its what friends do, isn't it?"

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Seven

Henry Mills believes in happy endings. He really does. It's better that way, isn't it? Everyone together and happy like his grandparents were before Mary-Margaret killed his mom's mom.

That makes Cora - the Queen of Hearts- his grandma.

Henry's head hurts. If anyone ever asks him to draw a family tree they're going to be very surprised.

Anyway. What was he thinking about? Oh yeah, that's right. Happy endings.

He always thought his mom's happy ending would be with his dad. That's what it was all about, wasn't it?

Then he turned the page and saw the picture.

Henry's convinced someone is sneaking unto his room at night and adding new pages to the book, because he doesn't remember ever reading about his mom's true love being a pirate standing in the grocery store in the dental health section.

"What are you doing?"

Hook turns and gives Henry the grin that looks like it's full of exciting stories neither of his moms would want him to hear. "Henry, lad. Maybe you can help. Last night your mother gifted me this item-"

He has a toothbrush in his hand. Henry came over to Emma's house and Hook was asleep on the couch. On the way back from New York his mom threatened to cut out Hook's tongue; now he's sleeping on their couch?

Maybe he should practice calling him Killian.

"She gave you a toothbrush."

Henry might be ten but he's no idiot. His grandparents sleep in the same room and they're true love. Regina and the old sheriff slept in the same room (because Henry lives there too, you know) and his mom and dad must have gotten closer than three feet because Henry knows how to use the internet. Neither of them are true love. So people who are and aren't in love share a bed.

So why is Hook on his mom's couch?

"Aye lad, she did. In my world when a woman bought a gift for a man it was a sword, or a doublet, maybe even a horse. Never have I seen such a thing. Not that I don't appreciate gifts from your mother." Hook adds hastily. "I'm simply trying to work out its meaning."

Henry thinks for a moment. "I have two toothbrushes, at each of my homes, so I'll always be able to clean my teeth. Mom - Emma mom - won't let me in the bathroom when she cleans her teeth. She says it's private. When the old sheriff used to stay at my other mom's house, he didn't have a toothbrush."

Hook stares at the plastic dental aid. "It is an intimate gift, then?"

Henry's never thought about a toothbrush that way before. A toothbrush is just a toothbrush. But all he can say is, "I guess."

A smile of sorts spreads across Hook's face; Henry should definitely practice calling him Killian.

"So why are you here, lad? Aren't children your age meant to be schooled at this time?"

Henry blushes. "After everything that's happened I think they kinda forgot." He stares at the pirate and tries to imagine him behind a desk doing math. He can't even imagine him out of his leather coat even though he's sure Hook was wearing one of David's - Grandpa's - shirts when Henry found him on the couch that morning. "Where did you go to school?"

Hook chuckles and stares at the toothpaste. "Somewhere very different to your place, I'd wager. My family were schooled by a governess until she left us; I attended a school where they monitored your hair and manners and made us wear a uniform. Ghastly thing. Lots of badges and braiding."

"Sounds just like my school." Henry says gloomily. "What did you study?"

"Classics, mainly." Hook returns the toothpaste to its shelf and stares at the shaving foam. "Latin, Greek, mathematics, literature, history, the sciences, astronomy. When I was your age I could use the stars to guide my way, anywhere I wanted to go."

"Really?" Hook's officially one of the coolest people Henry's ever met, leaving aside the fact that he tried to kill his grandfather and is why Belle can't remember anything. His moms tried to kill each other too and Regina Mom tried to kill his grandma, so no-one's really in a position to judge. "Can you show me?"

Hook laughs and for a moment looks just how Henry felt that night he stepped off that bus in Boston when he went to get his mom. "Not with these stars, lad. Here I fear that it would be like being led around by a blind man. Maybe in time, though. Henry ... is it custom to return gifts, in this realm? Your mother, when not threatening to kill me, has been rather hospitable. Now she has gifted me an intimate item and its only good form to reciprocate."

"Henry!" Henry's dad - Neal - Baelfire - appears. "Why aren't you in school? Oh ... hey, Hook."

Hook tips his head. "Bae."

Henry decides right then that everyone needs a name badge with a description of how they know each other. _Hi, my name is Henry and this is my family._

Henry stares at the two men. _Well this is awkward. _"I should probably get to school. Or Granny's. Or ... Someplace else."

"I'll walk you." His dad slings his arm around his shoulders and draws Henry away from the pirate. "See you later, Hook."

"Bye, Hook." Henry glances back as they round the aisle; the pirate's standing there, staring at them.

"You know, you should be careful with Hook." His dad says as they walk to Granny's. "Guy looks charming but he's ruthless."

"He's Mom's true love."

"Yeah well, we'll see." His dad has a look on his face that's impossible to describe. "Sometimes love doesn't conqueror everything, you know?"

"That isn't what the book says. Or Mary-Margaret."

"Yeah, well, Hook isn't Prince Charming. And you shouldn't believe everything you read."

"Of course he isn't." Henry's known his dad for less than a week; does he say really obvious stuff like this all the time? "That's why he's Mom's true love and not Mary-Margaret 's."

###

Hook leaves the indoor market with a certain sense of frustration. What kind of market refuses to accept bartering? He must have fallen into a new realm beyond common sense and decency!

He walks along Main Street, the cool wind on his face and the toothbrush in his pocket. Emma gave him a gift, a gift that was intimate, between people who cared about the other's teeth. At least she wasn't trying to cut out his tongue.

A flash of blonde hair out of the corner of his eye; Emma was in the tavern that they called Granny's, oblivious to the world. She doesn't look up when he comes in, her eyes on the drink in front of her.

Granny approaches him when he's near the counter. "We don't have rum but I can get you beer."

A tavern without rum? Hook has never heard of such a place. He shakes his head, gestures to Emma. "What does our good sheriff take?"

"Hot chocolate with blueberry pancakes."

"Then hot chocolate with blueberry pancakes it shall be." Hook finds some gold in his jacket, slides it across the counter and makes his way towards his true love.

She looks tired and lost in thought and a thousand innuendos spring into his mouth but he can't bring himself to speak. Instead he just slips into the seat opposite her and she glances up.

"What are you doing here?"

"This place is the only establishment in this town that accepts my currency." Hook says. "There is even a trade centre here that sets prices of items and will not permit bartering. What kind of world have I fallen into, Swan?"

Emma smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "Sounds like the whole world's gone crazy."

Granny brings his food over and Hook attacks the pancakes with gusto. They're sweet and light and unlike anything he has ever tasted. "I can see why you like these so much. They're rather exquisite."

Emma raises an eyebrow, pushes the cup of cocoa, whipped cream and cinnamon towards him. "Here. You need something to wash it down."

Hook shakes his head and pushes the cup towards Emma. "This isn't for me, lass. You see, since you so kindly bestowed a gift upon me, I have wanted to reciprocate, but I look at you now and believe that it is not a gift you need, but a friendly ear."

"And we are trying to be friends." Emma takes a sip from the cup, stares out of the window. "My parents want to go back to the Enchanted Forest. They've been growing magic beans, to get home. Back to their home, I guess. Get everyone back home."

"It is their home. It is all of our homes, save for you and your boy."

Emma's head snaps back to him and her eyes get very watery, like she's just opened her eyes in the sea. "You're the first person to say that. And, I mean, it's a ghost town, a creepy ghost town, and there are giants and trolls and maybe even dragons; how can Henry grow up in a world with giants and trolls and dragons?"

"I assure you, I have yet to meet a dragon."

Emma sips the hot chocolate. "Henry wants to go with them."

"And you?"

Emma shrugs. "I don't know. Place was kinda creepy, last time I was there. But it's not like I have anything here, if everyone leaves. I moved here for Henry; how can I be sheriff in a town without any townspeople?"

Hook's fingers trace the pattern on the table. "And Baelfire?"

"Neal?" Emma snorts. "Who knows? Neal's always done exactly what he wants."

"He is Henry's father. I imagine that can change a man."

Emma looks uncomfortable. "Neal and I haven't seen each other since I was eighteen. He didn't even know Henry existed until two days ago. He has a fiancé in New York - do you get where I'm going with this?"

"You think that everyone else would return?"

"Pretty much." Emma slurps on her drink some more. "What will you do?"

Hook's surprised. "Me?"

"You see any other pirates around here?"

"I ..." Hook's at a loss. "I have my ship. In my experience, so long as there are seas and the stars and rum and treasure, one world is much like another." He smiles when he sees Emma's face. "You look relieved, lass."

Emma looks embarrassed. "I thought you might say something true-loveish that would make me puke."

_You really have been alone your whole life, haven't you?_

Hook tips his head, takes a slurp on the hot drink. "We have not yet discussed the particulars of your lad's book, have we?"

"Don't tell me you believe it?" Emma takes back her mug. "And that's mine."

"I believe in true love."

Emma rolls her eyes. "True love, hope - what else do you believe in?"

Hook smiles and takes a sip from the mug. "Since you asked, I believe in good form. I believe that you and I make quite the team. And I believe in friendship. What do you believe?"

Emma smiles a smile Hook's never seen before. "I don't know what I believe except a cake for one's no birthday party."

Hook opens his mouth to retort but can't quite work out the meaning behind her words. "Is that a saying, of this realm?"

Emma laughs and pushes what's left of their drink towards him. "Here, you take the last. You bought it, even if it was probably with stolen gold. So you really believe it? The book telling us that we're true love?"

Hook smiles. "There's a saying in my world that the biggest thing often comes from the humblest beginnings. And you have the last of your beverage; I have drunk my fill."

###

Mary-Margaret's running late to her and David's - Charming's - dinner date at Granny's. She hadn't wanted to get out of bed but her husband had insisted: _you cannot lie in bed until your heart turns black. Then you will be giving Regina exactly what she wants._

Her hand lingers on the door handle; she pushes it open just enough to see a mop of dark hair sat across from her daughter, a mug of hot chocolate between them. Her daughter's smiling and trying to hide it; the pirate is midway through a tale that amuses her.

"Sorry I'm late-night" Charming barrels into her with a hug and a kiss and excuses she will accept because she loves him, but she puts a hand to her mouth.

"We can't go in there." She whispers.

"Why not? And why are we whispering?"

"Emma's in there with Killian." It's a nice name, sounds right on Mary-Margaret's tongue. _Much better than Hook_.

"With who?"

"With Hook."

"What-" Charming goes to push into the coffee shop but Mary-Margaret holds him firm.

"Don't." She says. "Don't ruin it for her."

"Ruin what?"

"That." Mary-Margaret lets her husband see the half-smile on their daughter's lips, a smile she's trying to hide. "Have you ever seen anyone other than Henry make her smile like that? Come on." She takes David's arm and pulls him away.

"I can't believe you're encouraging our daughter to hang out with a pirate." David rubs the back of his head. "He hit me with a crowbar!"

"He's trying, David. You know I stole from you, first time we met."

"Highway robbery is not assault!" David kisses his wife. "And you stole something far more precious than my gold."

"Come on." Mary-Margaret feels her heart swell with love. "Let's go to the ice cream parlour down the street."

TBC


End file.
